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So what about female welders?

06-13-2007, 03:52 PM

I am a professional sculptor in welded steel, much enjoying my new Miller MIG.
I am currently working on a lifesize Muskox. I made a small one first to get all the proportions and pose worked out and now I am building the big one(5 feet at the shoulder) I am using 1/8th inch Corten steel plate, cutting with a plasma cutter. I have met a few women in my field. Maybe there are more out there.

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great looking cow.
no preferenchal treatment needed here thats a fantastic job, i dont care who you are.
we do have a few ladies on here, not too many but we do have a few carmanelectra is a lady and welds with a TIG at home syncro180 or 200 cant remember. nothing wrong with a lady welder if its what she wants to do. my wife is extreamly skilled with a sewing amchine and has no intrest in welding or any of the greesy stuff in the shop. not a girly gire, she will get planty coverd in dirt and mud on her quad she just dosent care for the welding stuff. do what makes ya happy and who cares what the rest think thats what i say.
glad to have ya with us, looking forward to seeing more of your work. thats quite an undertaking you got going there. what plasma cutter are you using ?? and is it a consignment pice or freelance ?? do you have a galery or web site??

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped
sigpic feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES

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I have had the opportunity to work with a female weldor on two different occasions, both times I had the utmost respect for them and their abilities.
In the first case the female was about 300 lbs. and kinda resembled the bulldog emblem on a Mack truck, but man could that girl run circles around most of the guys, did the worst/dirtiest jobs on the site with pride and never complained about anything.
On the second occasion I had hired a girl to work at our shop and she was about 4 foot nothing weighed about 90 lbs. soaking wet and real pleasant to look at as well. The only problem i had with her was not with her, but with keeping the guys away from her so she could do her job. This girl was a top notch fabricator and put a lot of the guys to shame,not only could she weld but could run the shear, brake, run the lathes, mills, presses and she also wasn't afraid to put the guys in their place either. That girl could lay some of the prettiest beads I have ever seen, be it mig, tig, or stick. She moved on to an elevator manufacturing company and I still run into her from time to time and she's doing quite well for herself in this so called mans world

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I guess asking about lady welders stirred up something I did not intend to...I just feel that these days, now that equipment has become shop-sized, it is possible for EVERYONE to cut a sheet of steel down to a size they can manage.
So I am sure that there would be a few women who would like to write to the message board too. We can learn from everything we see.
I am sure Miller Weld would be very happy to know about that potential market.
In the meantime, thankyou just4fun, the muskox is not a commission...I work on spec because I love steel. I work at it full time and have for years...have done lifesize moose, Grizzly bears and cubs, a filly, a pair of wolves, a lifesize human figure morphing into a tree in Corten steel. I also work in oxy-acetylene and 22 guage mild steel and with that I create a lot of smaller indoor pieces, faces and figures. My plasma is a Hypertherm.
Anyway, thanks, I appreciate the polite replies.

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I would love to see some pictures of your other works, sounds like you have been doing this for quite some time now. I'm almost afraid to ask how long it takes you to make one of your sculptures, I'm sure there is untold hours in just figuring out the concept let alone the actual work time. keep posting with the life size Muskox, I'd like to see it in various stages of completion, and yes, you've got my respect. Dave

If necessity is the Mother of Invention, I must be the Father of Desperation!

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you did not stir up any thing. be what aand who you are and if some one dosent like it they will get over it or lern to live with it.
there is bond to be a cirten amount of the people who have run into problems with the equality gropes as some can be prity pushy. i dont see you as one of them, you just said you were and asked if others were here also. most of the members here you will find verry frendly and helpfull, but every barel has its bad apples. just dont eat them.
glad to have ya aboard and looking forward to seeing more of your work. so far the most creative i have gotten is a few flowers, and they are well below your level. FWIW i dont have a problem saying you as a lady are better at it then me, just a fact of life i cant no do i plan or expect to be better at every thing then every one else..... well ok some times when i been drinking i might make that clame.

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped
sigpic feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES

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This piece will take a year to complete...I am a little over halfway through, counting the time it took to create the small version, which you can see beside the big one in the some of the photos. I do a ton of research to prepare, needing to know how the animal moves, and its habits,so that my depiction of it is accurate. I will post photos as I go along.

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thats going to be spectacular when its finished. i realy like the idea of a small one first. not only dose it give you a referance but when the big one is done and gone off to its new home you will always have the lil one for your own colection to remide you of the great works you have done. its verry obveous you put a lt into your work, it shows. you realy have to get us some pic;s of your other work.
thats verry inspiering, make me wan to go make one, not that it would look any where as nice i'm shore but it dose look like fun. i hope you injoy it as much as you are good at it,

thanks for the help
......or..........
hope i helped
sigpic feel free to shoot me an e-mail direct i have time to chat.james@newyorkmetalart.comsummer is here, plant a tree. if you don't have space or time to plant one sponsor some one else to plant one for you. a tree is an investment in our planet, help it out.
JAMES